Whiteface Conditions
- Thread starter NYSkiBlog
- Start date
Face4Me
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2020
You gotta be in it to win it!!!
D.B. Cooper
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
I think it's as near to a lock as you're going to get. I trust a statement like that.
Face4Me
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2020
I went to the mountain with the intention of spending the whole day, getting on the gondola right at 8:30, but ended up leaving at around noon. That was probably my mistake ... It had warmed up considerably in the afternoon, and I'm guessing that conditions probably got much better as the day progressed.
The following is a lengthy report (man am I bored) of what I would describe as anobjective description opinion of conditions ...
While I was there, everything was pretty firm, with little or no soft snow to be found. I didn't venture into the trees at all, which might have been better. The mountain was busy due to the Empire State Games, but there were virtually no lift lines at all, at least while I was there (other than at the Lookout Mountain chair when it first opened).
They were blowing snow on Upper Northway and Excelsior. There's definitely something up with the snowmaking ... they had apparently been blowing snow (overnight?) on most of Excelsior, Lower Northway and Upper Valley. They were shutting the guns down on Upper Valley my first run down. One gun was so wet, you could see a giant frozen brown puddle in the snow where one of the guns was, and just above that, there was a big pile of ... goo. Ski patrol had to bamboo off the trail on the right side of the Face Lift towers ... it was that bad. On Excelsior and Lower Northway, whatever snow they had made was groomed out, but there were big sections of frozen light brown snow where the guns had been. You kept transitioning from snow to ice to snow to ice and so on.
The upper part of Skyward was pretty wind-scoured and the same was true of Paron's Run. Skier's left on Skyward below the ladies start building had the only soft snow I found at all. It was pretty good over there (a lift from the top of Niagara to the ladies start building would have been perfect). I didn't venture over to Cloudspin, but I heard it was decent, you just had to watch for things poking through. Victoria was actually pretty good, at least for the early part of the morning.
I didn't ski Mt. Run or any of the other trails on that part of the mountain. In recent days, they've only been grooming the middle of Mt. Run, leaving the section on skier's right of the lift towers, and the left side of the trail ungroomed. Honestly, I don't think that plan is leaving a wide enough section of trail, given its pitch and length. While riding the Little Whiteface chair, I saw several fairly close encounters on the groomed part of the trail. When I was there Thursday morning, I was skiing in a group of 5 ... we all had the same feeling, that there just wasn't enough room to ski side by side on the groomed section.
So yes ... they opened the Wilmington Trail and it was ... Ok. Very firm my first run down, and a little softer later in the morning, but nothing to get too excited about. It appears that they did make a TON of snow on it, so assuming there are no problems with the lift this year, it should last with good cover well into the Spring. I did hear that they are planning to blow snow on Hoyt's High before they shut down snowmaking for the year ... I hope this proves to be true!!!
On my second run down the Wilmington Trail, I decided to venture over to Bear Den to ski Moose ... that was ... interesting. There was literally a wall of snow at the start of the trail, with a very narrow spot on skier's right between the wall and the woods to go through. I decided to stay on Bobcat, and then hooked a hard right on Coyote Cut to get back over to Moose. The huge piles of snow continued all the down the length of the trail, with a fairly narrow passage between the right side of the snow piles and the woods. Apparently one of the groomers tried to work its way through that narrow section, because the trail was absolutely covered with small bits of pine branches that the groomer had knocked off of the trees as it went through.
On a 1 - 10 scale, I'd give the day a 5.
The following is a lengthy report (man am I bored) of what I would describe as an
While I was there, everything was pretty firm, with little or no soft snow to be found. I didn't venture into the trees at all, which might have been better. The mountain was busy due to the Empire State Games, but there were virtually no lift lines at all, at least while I was there (other than at the Lookout Mountain chair when it first opened).
They were blowing snow on Upper Northway and Excelsior. There's definitely something up with the snowmaking ... they had apparently been blowing snow (overnight?) on most of Excelsior, Lower Northway and Upper Valley. They were shutting the guns down on Upper Valley my first run down. One gun was so wet, you could see a giant frozen brown puddle in the snow where one of the guns was, and just above that, there was a big pile of ... goo. Ski patrol had to bamboo off the trail on the right side of the Face Lift towers ... it was that bad. On Excelsior and Lower Northway, whatever snow they had made was groomed out, but there were big sections of frozen light brown snow where the guns had been. You kept transitioning from snow to ice to snow to ice and so on.
The upper part of Skyward was pretty wind-scoured and the same was true of Paron's Run. Skier's left on Skyward below the ladies start building had the only soft snow I found at all. It was pretty good over there (a lift from the top of Niagara to the ladies start building would have been perfect). I didn't venture over to Cloudspin, but I heard it was decent, you just had to watch for things poking through. Victoria was actually pretty good, at least for the early part of the morning.
I didn't ski Mt. Run or any of the other trails on that part of the mountain. In recent days, they've only been grooming the middle of Mt. Run, leaving the section on skier's right of the lift towers, and the left side of the trail ungroomed. Honestly, I don't think that plan is leaving a wide enough section of trail, given its pitch and length. While riding the Little Whiteface chair, I saw several fairly close encounters on the groomed part of the trail. When I was there Thursday morning, I was skiing in a group of 5 ... we all had the same feeling, that there just wasn't enough room to ski side by side on the groomed section.
So yes ... they opened the Wilmington Trail and it was ... Ok. Very firm my first run down, and a little softer later in the morning, but nothing to get too excited about. It appears that they did make a TON of snow on it, so assuming there are no problems with the lift this year, it should last with good cover well into the Spring. I did hear that they are planning to blow snow on Hoyt's High before they shut down snowmaking for the year ... I hope this proves to be true!!!
On my second run down the Wilmington Trail, I decided to venture over to Bear Den to ski Moose ... that was ... interesting. There was literally a wall of snow at the start of the trail, with a very narrow spot on skier's right between the wall and the woods to go through. I decided to stay on Bobcat, and then hooked a hard right on Coyote Cut to get back over to Moose. The huge piles of snow continued all the down the length of the trail, with a fairly narrow passage between the right side of the snow piles and the woods. Apparently one of the groomers tried to work its way through that narrow section, because the trail was absolutely covered with small bits of pine branches that the groomer had knocked off of the trees as it went through.
On a 1 - 10 scale, I'd give the day a 5.
If it’s all firm, all pow or packed pow, or all goo most folks can figure out how best to ski it.
When it’s all 4 on the same slope in a 100 yards it’s accidents waiting to happen.
Saw a very good lady skier go over the handlebars in the goo the other day in that shit on a normally EZ blue cruiser. Double ejection yard sale. She was alright. A friend skied the very edge away from the guns and said it was all good snow.
We stayed off that trail at Song after that 1 run. The other trails we skied were consistents.
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Endoftheline
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2020
Concur w all you said. We were there yesterday but didn’t start til 10:30, it was nice and toasty by then. Skyward was the run of the day, both sides had nice soft snow from about a third of the way down. Sun actually poked through from 2pm on, made for much better vis.
Mtn run looked like they hadn’t even groomed the middle Sat pm. Agree, much too narrow of the groomed section.
Wilmington trail was ok on top, better below LOB but kind of crowded.
We didn’t try Cloudspin either, rode up w a guy who said it was fun but took a major core shot also.
Any idea what’s up w Wilderness? Pipe blow or some other snowmaking issue?
No sign of any attempt at blowing it, and that’s a signature run on the face, WTF?
Disappointed by the negative reports from Sunday and the general wet blanket view. We were there Sunday and today. As expected, after well below zero conditions, the top was frozen. On Sunday after a few runs the mountain loosened up and was great. Skyward was in its mid season, non powder form, real fast and firm. Wilmington was great. Firm up top but you could really get on edge on the bottom. Had a hard time keeping up with the fearless, 15 year old kid on the new Kore 93s. Mountain Run had a good groomer track down the middle with some challenging bands on each side.
It was pretty apparent that there was minimal grooming and maintenance over the past couple of days. Given the extreme cold that was appropriate. We thought it was great weekend.
It was pretty apparent that there was minimal grooming and maintenance over the past couple of days. Given the extreme cold that was appropriate. We thought it was great weekend.
